To disarm Hezbollah, Lebanese state needs both guns and butter

The military checkpoint south of Sidon is flanked by armored vehicles mounted with machine guns and concrete blocks painted in the colors of the red and white Lebanese flag, with a green cedar tree.

That’s like any other Lebanese Army checkpoint in southern Lebanon.

But, here, the soldiers are working on the optics of their expanded mission: to ensure the disarmament of Hezbollah – the powerful Iran-backed Shiite militia battered by a 14-month war with Israel – and establish a state monopoly on arms.

Why We Wrote This

The government in Beirut has committed itself to disarming Hezbollah and exercising a monopoly over the use of force in Lebanon. But political and economic reforms that curtail the power of corrupt, sectarian elites are no less vital to its success.

One smiling soldier,